Model-Based Tuners
Temperature control and tuning of heated plates has been a relevant issue since the early years of the semiconductor industry. As the industry has advanced to progressively smaller critical dimensions (CD), heated plate designs and associated temperature control have become more complex. The reason for this increased complexity is the rise in the number of actuator zones and corresponding sensor measurements that are needed to provide high-performance thermal control, e.g., more accurate temperatures, greater spatial uniformity, and higher ramp-up and ramp-down rates. As a result, heuristic approaches to control & tuning of heated plates can no longer provide satisfactory performance. This is where SC Solutions’ Model-based Tuner (MBT) product makes a substantial difference. By incorporating a high-resolution thermal model of your unique plate into the tuning process, the heuristics are replaced by the physics of the system while retaining the intuitive tuning method that process engineers are familiar with.
MBT Features & Benefits
- Optimized for your unique heated plate, susceptor, or electrostatic chuck.
- Operates with commercial wafer temperature measurement tools such as SensArray, or other custom measurement tools.
- Highly customizable.
- Intuitive Graphical User Interface (SC-MBT™), or integrated version using API calls and tuning engine that works seamlessly with your software framework.
- Multi-plate setup and plate-to-plate matching functionality.
- Both temperature and CD uniformity tuning.
With the new generation of heated plates having many tens or even hundreds of actuator zones, SC Solutions’ model-based tuning product that promises to be an indispensable tool for every process engineer.
You can learn more on how model-based tuning works in this case study. For more information, please contact us here.
